Progress toward a theory of supergravity

Abstract

As a new approach to supergravity, an action containing only vierbein and Rarita-Schwinger fields (${V}_{a\ensuremath{\mu}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\psi}}_{\ensuremath{\mu}}$) is presented together with supersymmetry transformations for these fields. The action is explicitly shown to be invariant except for a ${\ensuremath{\psi}}^{5}$ term in its variation. This term may also vanish, depending on a complicated calculation. (Added note: This term has now been shown to vanish by a computer calculation, so that the action presented here does possess full local supersymmetry.)